Feature - Key municipal services collapsing as economic crisis bites

Three children on their way from school splash dirty water flowing from a burst sewer pipe at each other, while further down the road a man holds his nose as he passes a pool of liquid human waste accumulating in a pothole. The sewer pipe burst two weeks ago, but nothing has been done - in spite of repeated visits to the Harare City Council's health department by residents of the high-density suburb of Warren Park with requests to mend the pipe. The sight of sewage flowing down the streets and accumulating in drainage pipes is common, not only in Warren Park, but also in other suburbs. The problem used to be confined to high-density areas due to overcrowding, but affluent low-density suburbs are now also being affected. Residents have largely blamed the situation on the ongoing squabble between the ministry of local government and national housing, and the municipal council, which is dominated by the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Mike Davis, the chairman of the Combined Harare Residents' Association (CHRA) said the standoff between the council and the ministry had adversely affected the delivery of essential services. "The government is interfering too much in the affairs of the council, and our feeling is that the local government ministry wants ratepayers to believe that the municipality is not capable of delivering. Too much attention is now being focused on the disturbances occurring due to the interference, and it is unfortunate that the residents are suffering most," Davis told IRIN. The suspension of Harare mayor Elias Mudzuri had turned the city council into a political battleground, Davis added. Mudzuri, elected mayor on an MDC ticket last year, was suspended in April by the local government minister, Ignatius Chombo, on charges of incompetence and corruption. Since his suspension the council has been run by another MDC member, Mudzuri's deputy and currently acting mayor, Sekai Makwavarara, pending the finalisation of Mudzuri's case. Makwavarara was seen by most of the councillors as being too sympathetic to the ruling ZANU PF, and her house was recently stoned by suspected MDC supporters. "It is obvious that Makwavarara cannot exert herself fully to running the affairs of the council. The current tension makes her feel vulnerable, and makes her unable to adequately co-ordinate activities of the municipality," said Davis. He alleged that the government was deliberately postponing Mudzuri's case as a way of perpetuating the problems at Town House, where the municipal offices are located. "The interference is so bad that the council cannot fire bad workers, for as long as they belong to the ruling party. That obviously compromises professionalism, hence the failure to deliver," added Davis. Earlier this year Chombo established a five-member committee that he said should help in the running of the affairs at Town House. Mudzuri rejected the committee, charging that it was Chombo's way of trying to frustrate him. Residents remarked that since the MDC council took over from a government-imposed commission last year, standards in the city had been steadily falling. Besides the sewage problem, householders were becoming used to mounds of garbage accumulating on the roadsides because refuse collectors were failing to cope - it now took more than a month before garbage collectors visited their area. Juliet Moyo of Kambuzuma suburb said residents were resorting to dumping their garbage on the streets because they did not have a choice. "Refuse collectors used to clear rubbish on a daily basis. As time went on, they cut their visits to three times a week, but now we have to go for more than a month without getting the services. This is despite the fact that we are always paying our rates on time," she told IRIN. She expressed the fear that children who played at the dumps risked contracting diseases as the rubbish mounds were infested with rats and flies. The city council last year engaged black-owned companies to collect refuse but they were not adequately performing the task, mainly due to the shortage of spare parts needed for the maintenance of their trucks. Most of the council fleet that would normally be allocated to garbage clearance is also not operating because the municipality does not have enough money for parts and fuel. Davis said collapsing infrastructure was another major problem - a number of suburbs have gone without water for more than three weeks because the water reticulation and pumping system could not cope. Davis said CHRA had tried in vain to lobby the government on behalf of the embattled city council to obtain increased borrowing powers. The council was granted limited borrowing powers, but the money they could access was said to be far less than required. "The government seems averse to increasing council's borrowing powers. Right now, we are made to understand that council can only access Zim $200 million (US $250,000), but common sense will tell you that the municipality needs billions of dollars in order to cope," said Davis. Observers have questioned why the commission that previously ran the city was accorded full borrowing powers, yet the current municipality was being denied these facilities. Davis said full borrowing powers should be restored urgently if service delivery was to improve. Acting mayor Makwavarara admitted that inflation, which has shot beyond 400 percent, was making it difficult to properly maintain the city's infrastructure. She said the skyrocketing prices of equipment needed to keep the city running was playing havoc with finances. As a result, the council had been forced to suspend some of its main projects, such as the expansion of residential estates and the upgrading of sewage treatment works. The lack of sufficient funding has affected not only the quantity of water being supplied to consumers, but also its quality. Makwavarara indicated that cost of water purification had risen fifteen-fold, and the department of works was finding it difficult to access foreign currency to purchase and import purifying chemicals. The frequent cuts in water supplies were adversely affecting the performance of industry. Shakespeare Maya, the proprietor of a steel manufacturing company, said his plant had been without water for three weeks. The company consumed more than 40 000 litres of water in its industrial cooling process and had to hire people to fetch water from a nearby river, but this was far from enough. "We are operating at less than 20 percent of our capacity. Because of the water problem, we are failing to meet demand. We have big orders but cannot honour them, and that is bad for business. If the situation continues like that, we will be forced to downsize operations," Maya told IRIN. He said there was no accountability in the way the council and the local government were treating the water shortage problem. He urged residents to mobilise themselves and lobby government. However, Davis said it was difficult to get residents to protest against the poor services they were receiving. "It has proved to be difficult to mobilise people. All the time we try to hold a meeting, we are arrested under the Public Order and Security Act. People are now afraid to gather to discuss their problems because of the draconian law," said Davis. The only option left was to organise residents to boycott paying rates, but this was difficult because it would mean the suspension of many key services.